REVIEW: Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.
Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered.
Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down.
Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.
And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he’s already lost…
Dear Ms. Jiles,
I saw that you were going to have a book coming out and I immediately requested it, no questions asked. Reading the blurb I figured it was going to be bloody, brutal at times, harsh, perhaps bittersweet with “morally complex” characters, and told at a slower pace. That didn’t stop me at all. It was everything that I thought it might be as well as having female characters who are smart and courageous. It is a book that will not uplift people and make them smile. There is little that is happy about it for a long time. But it sucked me in and I could not stop reading until I knew “what happened.”
He wakes up, confused as to where he is, and startled at the amazement with which someone – a nurse? – reacts to him speaking. Then a doctor appears, also delighted at his consciousness. He begins to think, groping for answers to their questions. Slowly John Chenneville remembers bits and pieces of his history and learns of the terrible accident that landed him for months in a military hospital in Virginia. He learns the war is over and – from one of the letters his uncle wrote to the doctor – that he must not be told something that could disturb him.
Traveling slowly back home to MIssouri – that land of Civil War lawlessness now under martial law – John continues to relearn the basics of life, regain his balance, and his memories. At home he finally learns the truth. His lovely, laughing sister, her husband, and their year old baby were murdered and their bodies tossed in a spring to be found and identified by those who knew and loved them. But John can’t set out yet to avenge the loss. It takes another year before his body can support his quest. Then he learns that his family are not the only victims of this man, this former soldier who has worn a badge and been protected from answering for his crimes in the chaos that still pervades the area. But now he knows that John is after him and the killer is on the run.
This is another book set during the post-Civil war years of early Reconstruction. Travel is again important and this occurs at the slow pace of horseback. Even a man who mercilessly drives the horses to lameness and death that he buys or steals from others in order to stay ahead of John Chenneville can only go so fast. John has the aliases the killer uses (extracted from an brutal associate in a not so nice manner), the intuition of what environments the killer would seek (after talking to witnesses and near victims), a set of forged discharge papers ($20 but worth every penny) for when he doesn’t want others to know his real name, and the driving determination to kill his sister’s murderer.
Before condemning John, remember that his family sought justice from the law and got nowhere. At one point John encounters someone who knows the killer, might know what the killer has done but who refuses to tell John where the killer is.
Along the way, John meets and interacts with others trying to move forward with their lives. The country is wrecked but John has little empathy for those in Confederate states who built it from the enslaved labor of others. He just wants to keep moving and close in on his prey. The man he seeks is out there, maybe a few days before him or perhaps falling a day or so behind but John is close. Things get more personal when the murderer strikes again, killing another person John met. And though John meets a young woman who knows his quest and with whom John feels he could happily live his life, his goal remains paramount. So anyone looking for a romantic HEA, just put that aside. This is historical fiction.
As the pages left to read dwindled, I got more anxious. Would John find the man he seeks and would John deal out the justice that burns in him to deliver? Another character says “There’s the law and then there’s justice. Sometimes the two overlap.” I didn’t see this wrap up coming, no not at all. And yet it fits and for Reasons I’ll take it. It also makes me wonder who among the many characters in this book (with nods here to Jefferson Kidd and Simon Boudlin) will be seen again in your next one. B
~Jayne
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Story sounds excellent, but not for me. Wish I were tougher. I know it’s fiction, but well written fiction feels as real as truth.
@LML: There are subjects that I can’t handle either whether or not they’re fiction or nonfiction. Jiles pulls few punches – something I wanted to make clear in the review. It’s not a book for everyone but I think it suits the bleak and war -wracked time.
I am a huge fan of Paulette Jiles and say bravo to this book and your excellent review. I was also wondering how will this end with so few pages left…and I was not disappointed. For anyone just starting with Jiles’ writing, if you love this book then go next to News of the World and Simon the Fiddler, and don’t forget Enemy Women, her first book, and Stormy Weather, her second, both featuring strong, resilient women.
@Jeannemarie Wallnau: “Enemy Women” was the first book of hers that I read and I’ve always meant to go back and write a review for it. I also have “Stormy Weather.” I haven’t had the courage to read “The Color of Lightning” yet. If you like Jiles then may I suggest “Satanta’s Woman” by Cynthia Haseloff.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/review-satantas-woman-by-cynthia-haseloff/